This is my blog about stuff in the news. Sometimes controversial but with the intention of making the blog's readers think about some of the stuff that is being passed off as news these days. You might not like what I say but feel free to comment - after all this is a democracy last time I checked!
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Posted By admin on December 15, 2011
Posted By admin on March 1, 2011
Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose – Me & Bobby McGee (Kristoffer “Kris” Kristofferson)
It is probably a little confusing that a blog that purports to be a commentary on the news has failed to mention that ‘winds of change’ that appear to be sweeping the Middle East with many commentators hoping and even predicting it shifting into sub-Saharan Africa. As Western politicians from all over the world fall over themselves to turn their backs on the leaders of these troubled countries, forgive me for not being impressed. Many of these same people where hugging and shaking hands with these ‘dictators’ for years. I have learnt or know about many ‘revolutions’ in the past and despite the sacrifices of the ordinary man and woman and child, for many, change, real change to their lives, remains elusive. One tyrant is replaced by another and yet by another – and any pretence of democracy is applauded by the West despite the contrary practises on the ground.
Whilst I applaud those who have courage to stand up to tyranny, I will wait to see just who the string pullers were and how honourable their intentions. Just call me cynical.
Posted By admin on January 14, 2011
After chaotic scenes of snow disruption in Europe come pictures and stories of floods from Australia and other places such as Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Brazil and near to home for me, Wales. Am I missing something but most of these natural occurrences are being described as the worst for many years, sometimes decades? Surely we don’t need any more warning that things are changing fast and we may be the cause.
Posted By admin on December 20, 2010
I have so much going on this holiday season so very limited updates will be made on this site and on the Facebook Page. Please don’t be put off by this, I will be back with a vengeance in the New Year.
Posted By admin on December 7, 2010
As company after company fall over themselves to distance themselves from the controvencial wikileaks website, either in self-censorship or due to backroom arm twisting and the subsequent criminal and spying accusations and manhunt for its owner, I wonder how many people see the scary ramifications of this matter.
First of all, we have proof that a lot of stuff goes on that our own governments do not want us, their ultimate employers, from knowing. We find that the suspicions some of us had of deceit and corruption are actually true and that we are ultimately responsible for things we, on a personal basis, may consider unethical and unacceptable. How accountable do we want our Governments to be, should they be able to hide and deceive us ‘for the better good’? Should we trust those same people to determine what the better good on our behalf is? The ‘Not In Our Name’ anti-war campaign seems not to have been wide ranging enough.
The second scary fact is that once caught out, how quickly the powers find it possible to try and discredit and close now the avenues available to anyone who ‘rages against the machine’. Multi-national companies we regard as powerful as Governments quickly bend to the will of some pipe piper whoever or whatever that happens to be. What we do know it is not us and some of us may suspect it is not our Governments that are financed by the same large corporations. I predict anyone’s contribution to wikileaks still stuck in the Swiss bank account or PayPal’s and Visa’s systems are unlikely to have it returned at any point in the future and expect no sympathy from the system.
Whether or not the leaks should have been released, whether or not they are as damaging or dangerous as they are made up to be, this affair should be sounding alarm bells with anyone who cares about the state of democracy worldwide.
Some Links
Posted By admin on December 1, 2010
Links
Posted By admin on November 30, 2010
I am one of those people who kind of pay attention when a lone voice cries out for attention continuously. Recently I became aware that one the Telegraph’s commentators, Christopher Booker, has been trying to draw attention to the danger of the Social Workers’ powers in the UK to remove and force the adoption of children in a system that does not appear to have enough check and balances to ensure injustice does not happen.
Forced Adoption Website
His latest article drew my attention to the Forced Adoption website – http://www.forced-adoption.com/ run by an ex-councillor Ian Josephs which attempts to assist parents fight against this system. In the article, ‘Forced adoptions get no sympathy from the ministry’, Mr Booker points to the fact that the Ministry refutes there is an issue saying less than 10% of cases result in erroneous conclusion. Ten percent! Even five percent is scary; these are people who are being wrongly accused of changes against their own children. Of the 8,000 cases brought to the courts each year, only 800 are rejected by the courts – a success rate that suggests that some rubber stamping may be the order of the day.
Schools, particularly in the inner cities, are very aware of this power and use the threat of social services to get parents, who are fully aware of the danger of entering this system, into line. Messrs Booker and Josephs are highlighting a very dangerous situation were abuses are likely to occur especially when targets are having to be met. Hopefully, someone will start to listen, power like this should not be concentrated without any checks or balances – otherwise it will end in tears.
Posted By admin on November 18, 2010
Call me an old cynic but the riots against the United Nations peace-keepers in Haiti make me smell a rat. With elections just round the corner I have my money on the fact that someone does not want too much outside scrutiny of the elections.
Echoes of similar situations in other parts of the world are probably the reason for my dubious acceptance that the Haitians actually want the UN peace keeping force out. There were the AIDS accusations in Libya, I think it was and I can’t remember, but something else in the Northern Nigeria to do with vaccinations.
One cannot but feel for the Haitians living in one of the poorest nations on the planet, suffering a devastating earthquake and the threat of a full scale hurricane just recently and then a cholera outbreak that has already killed over 1,000 people. On top of that you have foreigners running around with guns, all looking well fed and watered and nothing much looking like it’s being done. So easy for someone to manipulate barely educated people that all their troubles stem from the foreign devils (some truth in that) and that they use their modern ju-ju to kill innocent Haitians.
Time will tell whether in fact my hunch proves correct. Watch this space.
Posted By admin on November 15, 2010
Sayings like ‘one law for them and another for us’ and ‘only the little people pay taxes’ are sentiments that come out of a system that is basically unjust. Many will say we should be thankful that we live in a society where we can say things like that and not be thrown into prison or worse still shot. Really? Just because that is true does not make it right and nor does it mean one should just put up and shut up.
The recent goings on at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in the UK is a case in point. There has been a story doing the rounds that HMRC have decided that the original £6bn tax bill for our biggest mobile phone carrier should be reduced, after discussions, to a mere £1bn one payable in instalments. Obviously Vodafone will be delighted with this but felt it necessary with the innuendos doing the rounds to justify the taxman’s decision. The tax bill relates to some transaction done off-shore via a tax haven.
British Virgin Islands
If you are buying the Government’s rhetoric of ‘we are all in this together’ you are in for a nasty shock. Any help and support you have come to expect for your country is likely to dry up in the next few years, they are not coming back even if we end up in positive cash flow. Don’t believe me? Pop into your local tax office and try negotiating a reduction or even an extended payment plan. PAYE was created especially for the likes of you.
We will soon just have to be grateful for what we can get and cut each other’s throats getting for the crumbs that fall from the table. Some of us have even convinced ourselves that we doing OK and wish to keep more of our money to ourselves but that is an illusion. You wait until you have to pay for your schools, your universities, your hospitals and your old age home costs – you might then realise they don’t really care about you.
Links
Posted By admin on November 12, 2010
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Oil Platform
I will declare a vested interest in the subject of this post. I have a fairly substantial, by my standards anyway, investment in an alternative fuel, bio-diesel to be specific, project in one of the landlocked states of Africa. Though fraught with issues that opening a business in Africa entails, I was originally convinced that this states would soon realise that there is an alternative to paying for the use of ports and transportation systems to import oil which then is expensive and hinders the development of their countries. Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Burundi amongst others which had included Uganda, until their recent find, all have to import oil via their coastal neighbours. Now that some of them including those same coastal neighbours are finding oil locally, it makes sense to purchase from them which should translate into lower oil costs for these countries. So why bother with alternative fuels?
Here is where I am clutching at straws. Both oil and non-oil producing African nations need to think more long term. Currently the demand for oil is strong with the mighty industrialising nations of India and China increasing consumption strongly. These and all the other oil guzzling nations are willing to pay top dollar or at least market rates for oil. If you can produce alternatives cheaper locally, it makes economic sense to sell the higher priced black gold to the international market and stimulate your economy with both that income and lower production and distribution costs from the alternative fuel. Brazil uses its ethanol production effectively in this way especially for personal transportation. Non-oil producing nations avoid the costly and often troublesome importation issues.
Oil Spill in The Nigerian Oil Delta
Africa’s potential to produce low cost alternative fuel is massive. The under-utilised coastal areas for wind and wave electricity as well as the sea-weed bio-diesel production. Acres and acres of marginal growing land where plants like Jatropha would at least make the land productive and just recently a UK company obtained a patent to detoxify the usually poisonous plant into animal feed. To top it all off, solar electricity generation should be the order of the day in Africa.
Will they do it? I am not so sure which does not bode well for my investments. Oil in Africa has the terrifying track record of not making things better for the ordinary African , an in the street, or should I say bush. Some will get rich but for most, oil will be a ‘curse in disguise’.
